President Mnangagwa, Business Executives to meet over ‘high prices’

President Mnangagwa, Business Executives to meet over ‘high prices’

President Mnangagwa, Business Executives to meet over ‘high prices’

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has summoned local business executives to a meeting next week in a bid to stabilise the price of basic commodities, state-owned Herald newspaper reports.

In June, annual inflation stood at 176% and estmates suggest it could be above 200%, Bloomberg reports. There are fears that the country could be sliding back in hyperinflation.

President Mnangagwa, while addressing local leaders, is quoted as saying that the government sees no justification for the high prices and he wants to hear the challenges being faced by the business community.

“As a father, you don’t discipline your children every time they do something wrong, but just warn before taking any action. However, I think we have reached a point where action has to be taken because we don’t see any reason why there is this continuous rise in prices.”

President Mnangagwa also accused the country’s striking doctors of working with external forces to destabilise the health sector, the paper reports.

“We have discovered that there are a few individuals who are getting outside influence and then coming to influence others to continue with the strike. But what we are saying to the doctors is that you are Zimbabweans and the sick people are also Zimbabweans.”

One of the doctors’ complaints is that their salaries have not kept up with inflation. (BBC)